The Self-Organisation of Innovation Networks

Abstract

This paper explores the self-organising principles of horizontally-integrated innovation networks. It isshown that such networks can self-organising in environments where the co-ordination and production ofnew knowledge is itself a complex, dynamic and highly non-linear processes. The paper argues thedevelopment of a self-organisation perspective of innovation networks has two advantages. First, itprovides a general framework of dynamic systems in which different strands of a highly fragmentedliterature can be drawn together. Second, formal self-organisation modelling techniques can provideinteresting new insights into the micro-macro processes driving dynamic innovation systems.Section 1 of the paper identifies the four key principles of self-organisation: local interaction, non-linearity,thermodynamic openness and emergence. Section 2 discusses important complementarities between self-organisationtheory and the �new� theory of innovation, with the latter�s emphasis of the systemic nature ofknowledge production within innovation networks containing multiple private and public institutions thatare connected in highly complicated and non-linear ways. This paves the way for a formal model of self-organisinginnovation networks presented in section 3. Section 4 discusses the main properties of theoutputs generated by the model and its novel insights, section 5 summarising and considering the potentialadvantages for current and future research offered by the self-organisation approach.